California wants to ban irreversible encryption of data on phones by 2017



    Today it became known that a bill was proposed in California to ban the sale of phones with irreversible (inaccessible to third parties) encryption of default data by 2017. Bill AB 1681 establishes a number of requirements for state-owned smartphones. So, by January 1, 2017, the document says, the data on the phones sold should be “available for decryption and unlock by the manufacturer or OS provider.”

    If the bill becomes law, the manufacturer who violates it will pay a fine of $ 2,500 for each telephone sold. The reason for the appearance of such a bill? All the same fight against crime and terrorism.



    According to the author of the bill, "the police cannot fulfill their duties until the technology companies meet them." State officials who supported the bill argue that the government should have access to data on citizens' smartphones.

    “If a person is a criminal, we can access his account, his house, we can get a warrant for any purpose,” says Jim Cooper, author of the bill. “Smartphone manufacturers should not have arguments in favor of data privacy. We are going to establish surveillance of traffickers, people who do bad and evil things. There can be no exceptions, ”Cooper continued.

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